One Law for the Police, £60 and Three Points for Us?

Naomi · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 07, 2005 Posts: 49

police

etc etc

edited to make link simpler
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Too many people "search for the zero inside themselves". Sadly, many fail to find even that.

Nao

DaveNN

DennisN · Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 9:08 pm Post subject:

This will be about the third thread I've seen on this subject. It's all a bit subjective, don't you think? Those bare statistics don't include more information that might be taken into consideration ...
How many miles of road in the police authority area?
How many cameras?
How many police cars?
How many miles driven by police cars?
I DID look to see how Mr Brunstrom's North Wales fared and that's what made me think - I did a drive or two up there not very long ago and was disappointed not to see a single police car until I was leaving the area (when I saw three in a layby having a conference, not "patrolling"). And I didn't recall seeing a great number of fixed cameras either. Makes you wonder why so few were "caught" at red lights or Gatsos - he favours mobiles doesn't he? It would make an interesting study to get similar figures for us ordinary drivers comparing how many are done by fixed and how many by mobiles.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

GJF · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894

DennisN wrote:

DaveNN · Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 9:20 pm Post subject:

Skippy · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 8:28 am Post subject:

DennisN, the figures show a large discrepency between the number of offences detected and the number of convictions. That is the cause for concern.

If the Police are attending a genuine emergency then they need to be able to exceed the speed limit and disregard red lights, there is no debate about that. This accounts for 25% of the offences detected.

So the question is raised: What were the Police doing the other 75% of the time and should they be allowed to speed and run red lights without fear of prosecution if they are NOT on an emergency call?
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Gone fishing!

DennisN · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 9:04 am Post subject:

999tommo · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 10:14 am Post subject:

Oh dear..... I wasn't aware of this thread and asked if I wished to comment....

There are exemptions under the Road Traffic Act 1988, for emergency vehicles to contravene speed limits and to contravene red traffic lights. These offences are specifically mentioned, although consideration had to be given to others..

The exemptions are for Police vehicles being used for a Police purpose. It is not specific to blue lights. Each case has to be looked at on it's own merits.

I can only speak for my Force, which is not mentioned on the list in this thread, as I work in Scotland and these figures are for England and Wales.

Where I work, if you go through a red light or past a speed camera in a traffic car (as I do) AND your blue lights are on, no questions are asked. If you are in a panda or other general purpose vehicle in these circumstances, it is customary to radio up to the control room and say, "in relation to incident....X...please show a camera activation at...Y..on the log.

If a camera is activated by any vehicle without blue lights, then a 'please explain' letter arrives. If you can give a justifiable and verifiable explanation, then it is binned. If you can't, it's three points like everyone else.

I will now hide and wait for the flack Embarassed

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Tommo...

Regularly absent, but still here in spirit !

Tim Buxton · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 10:29 am Post subject:

Thanks for popping in. I hope you don't get any flak as your comments probably reflect what most of us expect to happen.
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Tim

999tommo · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 10:40 am Post subject:

It's OK. I've got broad shoulders. I appreciate theree will always be folk who are against us 'getting away' with anything, but in the bigger picture, the likelihood of us ignoring traffic laws just for the fun of it are pretty slim. If we went through a red light camera for example without any justifiable cause and killed someone, we would get treated far worse than a member of the public, losing our liberty, job, as well as being treated like a lepper. In the main, Police go out to work each day to try to do a good job. There's nothing I like better than catching the bad guys and if I have to exceed the speed limit or go through a red light to achieve that, then that's acceptable in my book. Obviously the value of our actions has to be weighed up as we go along.
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Tommo...

Regularly absent, but still here in spirit !

mostdom · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 10:54 am Post subject:

999tommo · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 11:32 am Post subject:

As I said, your actions have to justifiable and verifiable. So just saying something off the top of your head won't wash. Yes I'm sure with help, you could blag your way through, but we are big enough and sensible enough (in the main) to value our careers and our liberty enough not to do anything so silly.

A famous case in Scotland, and I won't mention any names, was a traffic officer who went from one end of his division to the other to pick up some party revellers and take them home, having been approached by a supervisor, and asked to do so. He then foolishly ignored speed cameras. He got an 18 month ban and a huge fine for his trouble together with internal discipline. The supervisor also got disciplined.

Worth it ? Don't think so.
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Tommo...

Regularly absent, but still here in spirit !

DennisN · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 10:18 pm Post subject:

GPS_fan · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 11:39 pm Post subject:

When our local paper ran this story a short while ago, it mentioned re-training for many drivers who 'escaped' prosecution.

Unfortunately, the national figures don't appear to reflect this and appear to indicate that a few drivers get prosecuted, whilst the rest don't receive any punishment or further action - ie, black and white

If our local journalists got their facts right for Hampshire, then there seem to be a few shades of grey missing from the national picture - ie disciplinary measures outwith the "ticket or no ticket" argument.
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Andy
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mostdom · Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 7:45 am Post subject:

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